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About the author

Steve Roud is the Founder of the Roud Folk Song Index and the author of a number of major works on English folkways and customs, including The English Year. Julia Bishop has a PhD in folksong and is Chief Editor of the forthcoming edition of the James Madison Carpenter Folksong Collection.

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One of the Spectator's Books of the Year 2012'Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladiesFarewell and adieu to you ladies of SpainFor we've received orders for to sail for old EnglandBut we hope in a short while to see you again'One of the great English popular art forms, the folk song can be painful, satirical, erotic, dramatic, rueful or funny. They have thrived when sung on a whim to a handful of friends in a pub; they have bewitched generations of English composers who have set them for everything from solo violin to full orchestra; they are sung in concerts, festivals, weddings, funerals and with nobody to hear but the singer.

This magical new collection brings together all the classic folk songs as well as many lesser-known discoveries, complete with music and annotations on their original sources and meaning. Published in cooperation with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, it is a worthy successor to Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L.Lloyd's original Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

'Her keen eye did glitter like the bright stars by nightThe robe she was wearing was costly and whiteHer bare neck was shaded with her long raven hairAnd they called her pretty Susan, the pride of Kildare'In association with EFDSS, the English Folk Dance and Song Society

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Penguin Books Ltd; June 2012ISBN 9780141964324Read online, or download in secure EPUB
Title: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs
Author: Julia Bishop; Steve Roud

In the press

Compelling ... fascinating and refreshingly objective ... Free of any cloying romanticism, [Roud and Bishop] are willing to point out the many quirks and flaws in the progress of the art form, and show how ideology, nationalism and class all played a part in forming our wide notions of folk today ... An impressive and nourishing book, with an appeal far beyond the folk aficionado. Roud and Bishop have created something vital